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archontwo t1_jd23uc9 wrote

Maybe selling old books, electronicly converted, at full price isn't helping?

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2SK170A t1_jd364xp wrote

Retail E-books have been a win for publishers, and flat or a loss for authors. And us readers.

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ticklechickens t1_jd540t6 wrote

If you are writing genre fiction (romance, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, thriller, horror, etc.), you are probably better off self-publishing, honestly. Romance and sci-fi in particular have very indie author friendly readers. Publishers these days expect authors to do most of their own promotion anyway.

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2SK170A t1_jd5t7v8 wrote

I'll take your word for it, but I still think there should be a better middle-ground where good authors get a fair deal and a decent push from publishers.

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ticklechickens t1_jd5w2lk wrote

Absolutely, mid list authors are not getting the support they once did.

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Vainpaix t1_jd3pkcs wrote

> And us readers.

Your punctuation doesn't make sense.

Also, Ebooks are a godsend to me; being able to annotate and shit inside the book is just awesome. Minimal vendor lock-in with a Pocketbook eReader is great too.

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2SK170A t1_jd3u77o wrote

I like ebooks; I'm only saying that their introduction has helped publishers more than authors.

I particularly like how you can click on a word and get the definition. I particularly dislike how you pay almost as much as a paper book but it cant be handed on when you're done.

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HereToDoThingz t1_jd4tf4r wrote

Read the room.

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Vainpaix t1_jd57fo6 wrote

I would need to get too close to others shit-smeared books to do that, the only ones I'll approach are mine.

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HereToDoThingz t1_jd5dwp3 wrote

Damnit Cotton I hit you with the layup and you fumbled the fancy footwork.

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ZeroOnline t1_jd5ansj wrote

Punctikn doesn't make sense

But I'll still rely to the comment.

Does it make sense or not?

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Triairius t1_jd5nmto wrote

The law of supply and demand knows no allegiance. Infinite supply with no price change? Goodbye demand.

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One_Gas5332 t1_jd7x4gw wrote

#TrueKnowledge_On_Navratri
चैत्र नवरात्रि

इस नवरात्रि पर अवश्य जानिए कि देवी दुर्गा को त्रिदेव जननी क्यों कहा जाता है?
जानने के लिए अवश्य पढ़ें ज्ञान गंगा।

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Loki-L t1_jd3lasr wrote

"Home Taping Is Killing Music"

  • 1980s anti-cassette tape slogan by the music industry

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."
-Jack Valenti said this in 1982 in testimony to the House of Representatives on why the VCR should be illegal.

Also see floppy discs, writable CDs, bittorrents and basically anything that made media easier to distribute.

Any time a new way to share media has come along it has made the rights industry more money not less.

The have continued to chip away at the rights of the public and extended copyright from a few years to basically forever.

Greed is killing their industry not lending out more digital copies of books.

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ScreamSmart t1_jd51pat wrote

Same old song and dance. AFAIK they've never proven piracy was killing video game or movie or music industry either.

Infact quite a few people turn to piracy when the service they pay for geoblock content, has worse ui and quality than piracy sites and are less likely to conserve old media.

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Fair-Lingonberry-268 t1_jd5ahmg wrote

They want us to pay for shitty products, that’s it. This way they’re forced to work for more quality content otherwise not even pirates would download it imho

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turtleship_2006 t1_jd5f9pp wrote

Also IIRC there was an EU study showing the exact opposite about piracy (that was never fully published or something?) But I don't have a link to that on hand.

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ScreamSmart t1_jd6rrsf wrote

Yeah there was something about people who pirate remain to be one of the biggest purchasers of that media.

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[deleted] t1_jd3espc wrote

It's incredibly difficult to make the "hurt sales" claim either way because you can always claim that no matter how good sales are that "but for X they would have been even higher" and there's no way to conclusively prove or disprove that.

That said, they don't really have to prove that it actually hurt sales to make their case. The actual legal question at issue hinges on what is and is not allowed under IP law and lost sales are irrelevant to that.

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Grimsley t1_jd3hthd wrote

Easier to simply say, correlation does not imply causation.

Same thing with pirating video games or movies or anything else. Can't prove that person would have actually gone out and bought the product legitimately.

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archontwo t1_jd6z2x8 wrote

There was an interesting study done by a large fashion house on the cheap knock off handbags and how they affected sales. They spent millions of dollars to find out that the people who bought knock off bags at a flea market for $50, where not the same people who payed for a $5000 bag from Louis Vitton or some such.

Imagine that!

It was part of a TED talk a few years back by Johanna Blakely

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[deleted] t1_jd3iwe4 wrote

But you can't prove that they wouldn't have either, and again, it's not really relevant as far as IP law is concerned.

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Grimsley t1_jd3mj75 wrote

Sure, but the onus is on the accuser to prove the damages.

As far as IP law, I can't even really speak on any of that because I personally have no idea about it.

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[deleted] t1_jd3p7s8 wrote

Yes, but the specific case against internet archive isn't really alleging damages (from my understanding) but centers around the fact that they are (allegedly) illegally copying and distributing copyrighted material.

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[deleted] t1_jd3yjek wrote

[deleted]

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[deleted] t1_jd40azc wrote

Yes, but the key phrase there is "one of" and it's a hard sell to argue that widespread distribution of a copyrighted work is ever "fair use", especially without adding anything to the work.

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BachthovenIB t1_jd2ih2u wrote

I love how the same people who are anti-capitalist and big business suddenly grovel under the feet of the big publishers.

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ImminentZero t1_jd2qmv4 wrote

What do you mean?

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[deleted] t1_jd2z52r wrote

[deleted]

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ImminentZero t1_jd2zktm wrote

Maybe I'm missing it, where do you see progressives supporting the publishers in this case?

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[deleted] t1_jd2ztty wrote

[deleted]

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ImminentZero t1_jd306bn wrote

>Not all progressives, but some claim that they are supporting the authors

Who? Who are "some"? I'm asking for examples.

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[deleted] t1_jd30jo3 wrote

[deleted]

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ImminentZero t1_jd3128c wrote

Wait, so you made a claim that progressives were siding with the capitalists, then you hedged to "not all progressives but some", and then when asked for an example, your response is "do your own research, bro"?

Just admit your comment was a supposition based on nothing but what's in your head, dude. This all just makes you look nonsensical.

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GreenAdvance t1_jd4zgps wrote

Who are you talking about? Nobody is supporting publishers here.

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crumpledcactus t1_jd56uwx wrote

I use Archive.org to get free books all the time - those books are ca. 100 years old and centered on either machinist topics, or statistical economic data, but it's still a wonderful resource.

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wwbbs2008 t1_jd4yley wrote

The archive has provided me information of immense historical value that would have otherwise been lost to time. It is one of the last open sources of data amd record of much of the web. Personally I would pay subscription or better yet advocate for government funding just like libraries.

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